#Opinion #BennyTai
#RuleofLaw

This is Professor Benny Tai Yiu-ting

I was thinking to create a portrait for him and asked him to bring some of the books, if not all, that motivate him to do what he is doing. As it turned out, he picked out the books from home and his office and briefly introduced them one after another.

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#Column #Opinion #Aug24
Year 2020: The Stranding and Disconnected World

Image: CNN

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https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/24463

#Column #Opinion #Aug24 #SpecialStatus #NationalSecurityLaw
Year 2020: The Stranding and Disconnected World

Part 1 - 2

Since Beijing's forceful imposition of the National Security Law in Hong Kong, thrusting the new legislation into the city’s constitution the Basic Law, how the Central and HKSAR governments extends juridiction through the law around the world is no longer the only main issue. In one way or the other, most democratic governments in the free world have suspended their extradition treaty with China and Hong Kong.

Although, the SAR government insisted that the U.S. sanctions has no legal effect in Hong Kong.

Several years ago, when the United States sanctioned North Korea and Iran, Hong Kong was both guarding and avoiding the U.S., while warily sponsoring China’s allies.

At a time in 2020, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (#HKMA) had issued a statement to financial institutions operating in Hong Kong, claiming that impact of the U.S. sanction is negligible. So is the Hong Kong Dollar no longer pegged to U.S. Dollar?

Suppose that the U.S. government will strictly enforce the sanction, and put an end to financial institutions providing services to the 11 individual being sanctioned, will the U.S. government also consider revoking the green-peg, or even withdrawing U.S. bonds from Hong Kong and China financial markets?

No one can predict where this financial warfare is leading to. But any reasonable Hongkonger should expect the Hong Kong and Central governments to turn these 11 people in to face the U.S. sanction. As Le Yucheng, China’s foreign vice-minister said in an interview, “we must stay focused without being swayed by any extreme forces, keep to the right direction of the bilateral relationship to prevent US-China relationship from spiraling out of control or getting derailed. This is also to avoid worsening of the hard-won trade deals.”

If any financial predator targets Hong Kong’s linked exchange rate system at this time, how much financial reserve does Hong Kong government have to defend the linked exchange rate? We must not forget that the government has been pouring out public money in enormous infrastructure projects like Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge, the new runway in airport and Lantau Tomorrow Vision.

Besides, the Central government might need substantial amount of funds from the Hong Kong government to reactivate its trade relationship with the U.S..

One must note that, in China, countless farmlands have been wiped out in recent mass floodings as the #CCP called for food saving. Local authorities sprang into action with proposals targeting food wastage and food recycling, or “operation empty plate”, an initiative reactivated anew by Xi.

Hong Kong could possibly resume its role in supporting China as if during Cultural Revolution: endeavored to purchase American soybeans or Australian beef for the motherland, feeding hungry fellows.

Image: CNN

#FoodShortage #FoodSecurity #Flooding #China #CCPControl #Xi #ExtraditionTreaty

#Column #Opinion #Aug25 #SpecialStatus #NationalSecurityLaw
Year 2020: The Stranding and Disconnected World

Image: Apple Daily #Aug10

Previously, Part 1
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/24463

Continue Reading Part 2
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https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/24490

#Column #Opinion #Aug25 #SpecialStatus #NationalSecurityLaw
Year 2020: The Stranding and Disconnected World

Previously, Part 1
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/24463

Part 2

Since the sanction could be mis-enforced, causing unintended consequence, a certain amount of personal data was disclosed alongside the U.S. sanction list so that there would be no excuse for financial institutions worldwide for not locking on the right person and execute sanction.

All at once, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data and Chief Executive Carrie Lam jumped up and cried out their disagreement: it is an infringement of privacy.

Meanwhile, personal data of Apple Daily reporters have been deliberately disclosed on a doxxing website quietly approved by government authorities.

It’s an astonishing coincidence that disclosed data of Apple Daily reporters, including photos and telephone numbers, were provided to China Travel Services for “Home Return Permit” application. Not knowing why, the Privacy Commissioner is stretching his ruling to the U.S. while letting go a doxxing website in Hong Kong.

Is Hong Kong still a metropolitan city? As many countries have lifted their extradition treaties with Hong Kong, is the city still in good capacity to hunt down criminals absconded abroad? Can Hong Kong counteract anyone who intends to harm the interests of Hongkongers or the Hong Kong and Chinese governments?

Image: Apple Daily #Aug10

#US #Sanction #AppleDaily #Doxxing #Privacy

Weaponising of the National Security Law

The arrest of Jimmy Lai has no doubt given us concrete evidence that we are heaving the last breaths of press freedom in Hong Kong.

However, this arrest is based on a very broad, albeit vague national security law that has recently been passed. On the surface, it might seem like another 'arrest of a pro-democracy figure', but it actually is Beijing weaponising this law in a bid to rid Hong Kong's opposition voice.

Source: ABC #Aug10

#Opinion #NationlSecurityLaw #JimmyLai #AppleDaily

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-10/why-chinas-arrest-of-hong-kongs-jimmy-lai-is-important/12541550

#Opinion #ChipTsao

From TNT to Nuclear Explosion – Chip Tsao

(06 Aug)Western countries are getting themselves more familiar with China’s unique survival philosophy following year after year of dealing with the dictatorship – saving face every second, but the things they do are often shameless.

In English, face (saving) bears with honour meaning people, who value face saving, will care about their behaviour not to shame themselves / be shamed. Therefore, to certain extent, face and honour are same for others to put credit on an individual that he / she is decent and trustworthy. In other words, if an individual loses face, embarrassment and ridiculing will follow as well as all his / her credit, reputation, honour in a society will be gone.

That is different in China (at least CCP’s culture) – a Dama (Dama is a Chinese term to describe housewife in their 40s+) visits Paris department store shopping for EUR100K of goods, putting on a Ferragamo scarf, taking selfie by Huawei phone and sharing it online. This is a familiar story everywhere with Damas’ presence at which they save face as much as they can / need to. But then the story will move on to phase 2 – footing to Louvre Museum with friends, getting glad, making a hubbub and performing CCP style dancing (red dance). At the scene, it raises everyone’s eyebrows, from French to all non-CCP tourists. Most importantly, Damas would never sense any problem on that as CCP is left far behind from the international standard which sees the acts as insulting themselves, their organization and race, losing all honour (if any in the heart of CCP’s people).

Another example – CCP students abroad from rich families would drive their Ferrari car to school occupying 2 car parking spaces, saving face in their mind but raising everyone else eyebrows. They would even not sense losing face upon penalized by professors resulting from hiring someone to do assignments or take exams for them. In westerners’ eyes, it is not understandable why an individual hardly saves face caring nothing about honour and reputation. That is CCP’s promoting “face” – staying at the basic needs level saving face by wealth only, removing honour and reputation sense from people’s mind as they are important for people to keep their independent and critical thinking, which are extremely feared by CCP.

Year after year, many western Chinese scholars keep studying this strange mentality – Professor KING Yeo Chi Ambrose’s book “Face, Shame and Chinese’s behavior” is very impressive. Doctor HWANG Kwang Kuo’s “Confucianism and Relationship-ism affecting Chinese’s value on Face” illustrates the Guanxism (relationship (Guanxi, phonetic of relationship in Mandarin)) is actually from the sense of inferiority of China’s people who need Confucianism connected relationship and people to overcome the feeling of inferiority. When a group of such people build the network of relationship, the feeling of inferiority would become the group’s arrogance.

With the advanced social medias and networking tools invented by Americans, China’s people enhance such network of relationship substantially. In other words, they are more crazy and active to enjoy showing off their wealthy but bad taste and shameless to the world, comparing to the last generation without internet. That is our caption today – if Cultural Revolution 2.0 is activated, those brainwashed population who were just TM level in old days would become nuclear bomb.

Americans finally got enlightened and is roping other western countries in planning to get rid of this disaster made by CCP, though it is a bit late.

Source: Chip Tsao - From TNT to Nuclear Explosion

Translated by: Hong Kong Echo

#China #ChineseCulture #SavingFace #Dama #Showoff

#Opinion #HongkongersVoice #ChanSikChi
Could the Police's new definition on Media Representatives be sensibly implemented?

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https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/25799

#Opinion #HongkongersVoice #ChanSikChi
Could the Police's new definition on Media Representatives be sensibly implemented?

When I woke up in the early morning, I felt autumn in the air which is perhaps the best time of a year in Hong Kong. Regrettably, “best” is no longer an appropriate word for this battered city.

Last week, the Hong Kong Police amended the Police General Orders and shocked the public with their new definition of “media representatives”. Although the media has responded strongly with disapproval, the Force backed their decision, taking media objections as mere nuisance.

A day later, seven universities and tertiary institutions joined hands and issued a statement reprimanding the Police for stripping press freedom in Hong Kong, which is under the citizens' rights granted under the Basic Law.

Attempting to ratify the trouble they asked, officers of Police Public Relations Branch anxiously called and supplemented senior management of local media with a softer message, claiming themselves as “sources”. According to these sources, as long as reporters are not obstructing police from carrying out their duty, officers would not get in the way of any journalistic activity, claiming also that reporters can continue reporting any event in public area, and so forth.

Apparently, these “sources” are telling lies. In reality, on the same day as the Police announced the amendment, when a photographer from Apple Daily stood on his own on a footbridge, covering a vigil held in remembrance of the deceased pro-democracy protester Chan Yin-lam, he was ticketed for violating the gathering ban. Isn’t it bizarre for one person to violate the rule-of-4 restriction?

Moreover, when the photographer showed his press ID as instructed, the police responded that they don’t recognise Apple Daily, forcing him to register with PPRB again.

Obviously, Apple Daily is a registered media on the Government News & Media Information System (GNMIS). It is also hard to believe that any police officer in Hong Kong would not recognise Apple Daily. The incident showed how easily one could trump up a charge if they are intended to find fault and obstruct reporters from reporting.

Implementation of the Police's new definition on media representatives—only those registered on the Government News and Media Information System (GNMIS) will be recognized media outlets—is barely possible. Among the 200 some media outlets already registered on GNMIS, should police officers not recognize Apple Daily, how can they recognize other smaller and less known media outlets.

I could also foresee that HK police deploying "stop and search" operations on a whim to search reporters one-by-one, in order to restrain reporters' mobility at a scene.

A reporter from Ming Pao was once “kept” in a cordoned area for more than 40 minutes, awaited to be searched. When he was eventually released, the clash ended, leaving him nothing to report.

Could this be the reality the Hong Kong Police Force is attempting to enforce upon Hong Kong?

Source: Apple Daily #Sept26
#WhiteTerror #PoliticalOppression

#Opinion

China wants the United States to be generous and share the coronavirus vaccines worldwide; China’s hypocritical and rascal acts to shift focus on their responsibility of spreading the coronavirus epidemic

//On the weekend after G20 meeting, leaders from each country gave a speech through the internet meeting and mostly discussed the rebound of the epidemic happening around the world. During Xi Jinping’s speech, he talked through his hat as usual and stated that he fully supports vaccine development and for the vaccine to become public assets in the future, so those poor countries could also get the vaccine. He even suggested developing an international health code cell-phone app for healthy people to travel around the world, to speed up the recovery of the global economy.

//Health codes are QR codes app that is currently implementing in Mainland China, storing all personal health data and location information in the mobile phone so that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Government can track one’s location.

//Even if a person is not concerned about personal’s privacy, one should worry about the credibility of China’s virus testing. If the virus testing has a false result, it would lead to many falsely diagnosed patients traveling around the world, repeating the tribulation of China exporting the coronavirus. The world needs to remember in early 2020, China tried to conceal the in-country epidemic; when it could not be hidden anymore, CCP repeatedly emphasized that the virus was similar to flu and condemned those countries that prohibited the entry of Chinese citizens as an act of racialism, resulting in many Chinese patients exported the virus over the world. China is the origin of the coronavirus epidemic.

//Other countries may not do well in controlling the epidemic, but it cannot counteract the responsibility of China creating the epidemic. It is the same as a fireman being unable to control the mountain fire effectively, but ignore the criminal liability of the arsonist who caused the fire.

//If China really cares about poor countries for not getting the vaccines, why don’t China purchase the vaccines for the countries from the United States? The Chinese government had also been telling the world that the vaccines developed in China were very effective and safe, even releasing them before the US. Since the Chinese vaccines are that good, why don’t the China government distribute them to poor countries for free?

//The Chinese pharmaceutical factories had never published their research and testing data on the vaccines.

Full Translation Here: Hong Kong Echo

Source: The Stand News

#China #Coronavirus #Vaccines #Blame #Pressure

#Court
#Opinion: Tong Ying-Kit Case Puts "Liberate Hong Kong" Slogan on Trial, with a Predetermined Verdict

Source: Simon Shen facebook #Jul7

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https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/30498

#Court
#Opinion: Tong Ying-Kit Case Puts "Liberate Hong Kong" Slogan on Trial, with a Predetermined Verdict

[Editor's note:
24-year-old Tong Ying-kit is the first person to be charged under the National Security Law in Hong Kong, for displaying a flag with the words "Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of Our Times" on his motorbike and driving towards police officers. The trial is now underway.

The following is an opinion article published by #SimonShen, a public intellectual specialized in international relations, on July 7, 2021.]

"On the surface, this is a case against the man #TongYingKit.

To the Hong Kong authorities, however, this case will effectively set the legal characterization for the slogan "Liberate Hong Kong, the Revolution of Our Times".

This is exactly why the Department of Justice insisted not to allow a trial by jury. Instead, they turned it into a trial by "designated National Security judges", giving them the power to determine the definition of the slogan.

With such an arrangement, the outcome is a foregone conclusion to nearly every observer. No matter what kind of outrageous scenes would happen during the proceedings, when all is said and done, the slogan would become a legally banned phrase, having been deemed unlawful by the 'British-designed judiciary system'.

After all, what would be the alternative? If the courts determined that "Liberate Hong Kong, the Revolution of Our Times" is not equivalent to "Hong Kong independence", then wouldn't it defeat the purpose of establishing the HKSAR National Security Law?

Thus, the authorities had first determined the desired verdict, then began rummaging through the records to dig up evidence that match their narrative.

This process is the exact opposite of the logical reasoning that the world is accustomed to; unfortunately, this is the norm in China. And this is has now become our times."

Source: Simon Shen facebook #Jul7

Read original article in full: patreon.com/posts/53365694

#NationalSecurityLaw #KangarooCourt #CrimeOfSpeech

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See also:

Prosecutors Deny Hongkongers' Right to Jury Trial; Judge Has Difficulties in Comprehending Law Written in English

https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/29698

#Opinion: National Security Law Turns Hong Kong Into a Launchpad for China's Legal Terrorism

https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/22449